Sunday, 15 January 2012

What's Happening, Hot Stuff?? 15/1/12

Welcome to this week's WHHS!

I will start with some 'shocking', yet not totally unsurprising news- did you know that out of 19 EU countries, the UK has the 14th worst diet!? Despite nutritional advice being widely available, Britons don't eat enough fruit or veg! In fact, the only EU countries who met the suggested target were Poland, Italy, Germany & Austria! Admittedly, we aren't the healthiest of eaters, but the importance of maintaining a healthy diet doesn't escape us. After all, eating fruit & veg does lower the risk of chronic diseases and certain cancers! 'A balanced diet' to us is DC is one hand & chocolate in the other :) but for 2012 we are committed to try harder!

A teenage transsexual has become the first sex swapped patient to enter the Miss England beauty pageant. Jackie Green became the UK's youngest transsexual after an op in Thailand on her 16th birthday. The 18-year old, who was born Jack, has lived as a girl since the age of ten. The aspiring model hopes to use this opportunity to speak out about bullying and transgender issues after modelling scouts suggested she enter the competition.

Speaking of pageants, it's great to see that Miss California had two openly gay contestants enter this year, and one of them is femme! Molly is from West Hollywood and Jenelle is from Long Beach. Neither made it the top 20 unfortunately but we're sure their visibility in the media will have a positive effect. Molly even made it onto TMZ, famous for celebrity gossip & entertainment news:

If you saw the news yesterday, you've seen that Obama is once again in the news as he came out against repealing New Hampshire's 2009 Marriage Equality Law. The vote is expected this Wednesday and if the legislature goes through they will be the first state that has given gay marriage rights just to take them away again! In fact they will be the first place ANYWHERE in the WORLD to do that! Unfortunately, the Republicans have a majority in both chambers (it has to pass both in order to become a law). We'll keep you updated!

Congratulations tobisexual actor Alan Cumming (LOVE him!) who announced last night that he had married his partner Grant Shaffer in New York, following their British civil partnership. They celebrated the fifth anniversary of their civil union by marrying in the US state, the sixth in the USA to allow the ceremonies. Alan Cumming, originally from Scotland, announced the news on Twitter with a special message for Republican presidential candidacy hopeful Rick Santorum. He wrote: “I just got married!!!!! On the 5th anniversary of our wedding in London grant and I tied the knot again in NYC!!! #eatmericksantorum." Hahaha

As Laura said last week, we have a close eye on anything gay & Presidential Race-related as the result will no doubt impact where we end up and when. This week Rick Santorum, whose campaign slogan is 'Courage to fight for America', was booed after making anti-gay comments ahead of his New Hampshire primary (1st level of voting) for Republican Presidential nomination. It seems he has quite a history of upsetting the gay community.

If you search "Santorum" on Google, you won't find a Wikipedia entry on the life and times of the presidential hopeful, nor a link to his campaign website. Instead, the first hit is a raunchy dictionary definition of a byproduct of anal sex. Clicking on it opens up a website, "Spreading Santorum," that features rants and ridicule — regarding all things Santorum. Needless to say, Santorum is fuming. But nine years ago, he offended the wrong person when he made anti-gay remarks in a controversial interview with The Associated Press. "I have a problem with homosexual acts," Santorum said, adding that he believed the U.S. Constitution does not protect the privacy of adults conducting in consensual sexual relations. The sex lives of homosexuals, he added, should be regulated in the same way as child molesters and polygamists. "In every society, the definition of marriage has not ever, to my knowledge, included homosexuality," He continued. "That's not to pick on homosexuality. It's not, you know, man on child, man on dog, or whatever the case may be." Dan Savage, founder of the It Gets Better Project and gay sex columnist, was outraged to hear Santorum liken gay sex to beastiality. A reader suggested he hold a contest to redefine Santorum's surname. The winning entry was... well, disgusting. Look it up if you are curious, but not if you are squeamish!

So SpreadingSantorum.com was born, following Santorum's political career with regular updates, posts, snarky commentary and input from The Onion. Since Santorum came within a few votes of winning the recent Iowa caucuses, the site has been in overdrive. In September, Santorum demanded Google intervene, but quite rightly they refused, as it is the most popular link to his name, doesn't promote violence, and is doing nothing illegal. He has now threatened to sue. We say go Google! This is one of the best things we've read in awhile about getting your own back!

In other news, have you heard about the Girl Scout Cookie boycott? In summary, a current member of the American Girl Scouts has decided that because the association will admit transgender children, the public should not buy Girl Scout Cookies this year. We know the FCKH8campaign controversially uses children to get their message across, but this video is clearly scripted so it makes you ask just how much of what is said is actually her opinion? You will notice her reason for disapproving changes almost every other sentence, and she uses many quotes including 'my family thinks'. Other than the irritating quoting, is she not missing the point that transgender males are not men 'hiding out' as women - they identify as women, so therefore belong in a girls organisation? We were impressed that the American Girls Scouts are so inclusive - so if you are Stateside, make sure you buy those cookies - we hope it's their highest cookieselling year ever!

Tel Aviv has been voted the 'Best Gay Travel Destination' of 2011 by American Airlines and gaycities.com. Tel Aviv won with 43% of the votes, New York was in 2nd place with 14% and Toronto was 3rd with 7%! London managed just 5%. Gaycities.com is actually a really useful website for trip advice if you're looking for holiday ideas.

Here's something for you to try (it works for most phone numbers) on Facebook if you want to find out the 'name' of your phone: